Rio Nitrus Preview

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By M. Wiley

Last week I posted a review of the RCA Lyra Mini-Jukebox. While the Mini-Jukebox was first to market, I originally saw this format player in the Rio Nitrus. Of course, when I saw it at CES it didn't have a product name yet. In fact, at the time Rio was part of the now defunct SonicBLUE. Digital Networks North America (DNNA) picked up the Rio brand and with it came several products under development. DNNA had the brains to keep what we now know as the Nitrus in the stable.

I received my review unit this morning. I haven't spent enough time with the Nitrus to post a full review, but I wanted to get some pics and my initial impression up. I got an enormous response from the Rio Reborn article, in which I outlined the new product family, and many of you will be happy to know that the Nitrus has already impressed me greatly. It's not perfect, but the Nitrus looks like it will rise to the top of the format it pioneered.

Firstly, the big draw of this type of player is size. Like the aforementioned RCA, the Nitrus gives you 1.5GB of internal storage. This is enough space for roughly 375 songs encoded at 128kbps. 128kbps files sound like trash, so figure more like 275-320 depending on your bit rate. Nonetheless, this is a huge chunk of music considering how small and light the Nitrus is. Measuring 3" x 2.4" x 0.6" and tipping the scales at two ounces, the Nitrus is more compact than most current flash players. The RCA is a bit thinner and shorter, but the chubby design makes it less pocket-friendly. The Nitrus is portable enough for any situation.

Aesthetically, the designers went all out with the Nitrus. If nothing else, the player is extremely distinct looking. I could describe it, but it is easier for you to simply enlarge the following pics.

On the front of the player is a red joystick that is used for both playback control and menu navigation. Up is play/pause, down is stop, left is previous track/reverse scan, and right is next track/forward scan. On a down note, you cannot hear the track during reverse/forward scanning. With hope a firmware update will fix this. When the stick is depressed during playback it cycles through information displayed on the bottom section of the LCD. The area around the joystick is countersunk. This means that the stick doesn't protrude very much, which would make accidental operation too easy. It also means that it is easy to use with your thumb.

Near the top left corner of the LCD sits the power button.

On the right side of the Nitrus you'll find a small menu button and a scroll wheel, which rotates fully. The wheel is only used for menu navigation, though you can use the joystick as well. While using the wheel, you depress it to make selections. The menu button is a bit too small and soft, but the scroll wheel feels excellent. And navigating a menu system with a wheel, instead of the more common jog lever, is very easy.

The volume buttons are set on the left side of the Nitrus. I appreciate the separate buttons, but they are so small and soft that they feel unresponsive. They also lack a click for feedback, so it is sometimes difficult to tell when you've actually used them. (I know that the change in volume will let you know, but I think this kind of tactile confirmation is important.)

On the top of the player sit the inputs and outputs. An AC adapter jack, USB 2.0/1.1 port, and headphone jack all sit toward the side of the player with the volume controls. An extremely small hole allows you to reset the device with a paperclip if it crashes. The USB port accepts a standard miniplug.

The hold switch is mounted on the top edge of the back of the Nitrus.

DNNA was also smart enough to keep the excellent menu system, which first appeared on the disastrous Rio Riot. The new version of the firmware is slimmed down, but keeps the easy to use interface and long list of options. The full breakdown will come on the full review, but the player has a good spread of tweaks and, again, the interface is extremely effective. Along the same lines, the LCD description will be in the review.

Unfortunately, the Nitrus does not operate without drivers. Even the RCA model allowed for drag and drop transfers, which are very important to many users. Requiring drivers also makes using the Nitrus as a generic USB 2.0 drive very difficult. You cannot simply use it to transfer data files among computers without installing Rio's software. I understand why companies do this, but it is a mistake.

Another problem with the Rio software is that it comes off like an all-in-one solution. Unfortunately, you can only rip to MP3 with a $9.95 upgrade that installs an encoder. You can rip to WMA or Ogg Vorbis with the standard version, but MP3 requires a few more bucks. Obviously, most of you already have an encoder already -- you're considering an MP3 player, after all -- but I thought this was a sneaky move by Rio. In general the software works well and is easy to use, but I was a bit turned off by the missing encoder.

The designers got it right in the sound department. It could be a little louder -- I would tell you how powerful the amp is, but details are strangely difficult to find -- but it is very clear and distortion levels are relatively low when the amp is pushed. Rio bundles Sennheiser earbuds with the Nitrus, just like everyone else. Throw them away and buy a decent pair.

So I don't like the software, but I like the hardware and firmware (for the most part) very much so far. I might not get around to a full review this week, but you never know.